The Long Road Home 22 - Home Changes, page 15
part #22 of The Long Road Home Series
“You ended up sleeping under the boardwalk instead.”
Her head dipped. “Yeah.”
Seth ran a hand down his jaw. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You know that, right?” She shrugged. He leaned forward but not too much because she was still terrified. He kept his voice steady. “You survived. You got out. That takes guts, Lottie.”
She met his eyes but only for a second. Her voice was raw when she said, “I’m scared he’ll hurt someone else just to punish me. I was trying to get to my aunt in North Dakota. She’s the only one who ever helped me. She’d take me in, but if he thinks I went to her …”
“My question is, how did he know you were here?” Seth said out loud. “But that isn’t an issue anymore. You’re safe here. That’s a promise.”
She looked at him then, really looked. There was so much fear in her eyes. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.”
“They won’t. You’re not alone in this anymore.” He stood, letting the weight of his words settle between them.
“I’m going to talk to Ken. He’s the county sheriff. We need to get this on record. We’ll figure it out.”
“The police won’t help.”
Seth stopped. “Why do you say that?”
“Because they didn’t believe the neighbors. They called it in when they heard him hitting me. He made me tell them I’d fallen, that I was okay, that nothing was wrong. When they left, he threatened the lady next door. He told her he’d beat me to death if she called again.” She sniffed and wiped at her nose. “They never came back.”
“We can’t be intimidated, Lottie,” Allison said from where she stood. “If anyone tried that here, they’d find out what small town justice looked like and fast.”
Seth nodded. “If he shows up, he’ll have to get through us and every citizen of this town.”
Loretta glanced from Allison to him slowly, her face pale but a little less hollow. Maybe, just maybe, she'd started to believe them.
“What’s your aunt’s name? We can make sure she’s okay.”
“You’d do that?” Lottie’s eyes held a glimmer of hope.
“Yes,” Seth said. Even if he had to drive to North Dakota to make sure it happened. She gave him the information. Seth vowed he’d do everything in his power to make sure her past never touched her future again. He stood up and noticed how Lottie involuntarily flinched as he did. He put his hand on Allison’s shoulder and said, “I’m going to step out and call Ken.”
Allison smiled and covered his hand with hers for a moment. That connection was just what he needed. She was his grounding point, and that was a revelation.
Seth stepped out onto the back stairs of the building, letting the screen door thud shut behind him. The cold crept under his collar, but he welcomed it. Needed it. The air was sharp with dust and pine, the faint scent of cows drifting from the stockyard just out of town.
He hit Ken’s number, which was now on speed dial, and pressed the phone to his ear. The sheriff answered on the third ring.
“Zorn.”
“It’s Seth.”
“What’s up?”
“I’ve got a situation.”
A pause. “Chester?”
“No. Remember that girl Allison called you about?”
“Yeah. No one ever saw her, though.”
Seth glanced back through the glass. He could just see Loretta through the kitchen window, hunched on a stool, holding a mug between both hands like it was the only warm thing in the world.
“She’s sitting in Allison’s kitchen. Early twenties. Showed up dirty, scared, and half-starved. Allison called the doctor to check her out yesterday. The girl was terrified and refused to talk and demanded no police. I talked to her today and got some answers.”
“Name?”
“Loretta. Goes by Lottie. Says she’s from Spearfish. She’s running from someone who beat her so bad she should’ve been in a hospital. Didn’t file a report, didn’t go to the ER. Just waited until he went to work, grabbed what she could, and left.”
Ken blew out a breath. “Goddamn.”
“She’s scared he’ll go after her aunt in North Dakota. She doesn’t want to contact anyone in case he’s tracking her.”
“Is he?”
Seth rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, he is. Question is how. She said she thought he was following her and the couple that had picked her up hitchhiking, but the truck passed Hollister. He came back soon after. She dove under the boardwalk and watched him. She said he went to the diner, the gas station, and then tried to get into the bakery and the clothes shop next door. Both were closed then, so it had to be after two.”
Another long pause. “Yeah, Kayla was gone for a couple of weeks. That makes sense. She tell you his name?” Ken asked.
“No,” Seth said. “Not yet. I’m not pushing her right now. She’s on the edge. Thought she was going to bolt when I asked her where she’s from.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
Ken was quiet again. When he spoke, his voice had settled into that low, steady tone Seth recognized.
“You trust her?”
“I trust the bruises under her sleeves and how she watches every door. I trust that she’s got more fear than guile.”
“All right. I’ll run what I can from this end quietly. I’ll cross-reference missing persons and domestic disturbances in the area. If he’s got a history, I’ll find it.”
“Appreciate it.”
“You armed?” Ken asked.
Seth’s mouth twitched. “Rifle in the truck, dog at my side. No one is going to fuck with us.”
“You think he’ll come here?”
“I think if he’s got half a brain, he won’t. But if he’s the kind of man who puts his fists on a woman and still thinks he owns her, then yeah. He might show up again. That’s why Lottie kept hidden and ate out of garbage cans.”
“I’ll have the deputy run some extra passes past the bakery. Night and morning.”
“Keep it subtle. She’s skittish, and if even a fraction of what she’s saying is true, he’s not stupid.” Seth paused. “I have the aunt’s name.” He provided it to Ken.
“You call if anything changes,” Ken said. “See if you can get a description of the truck or this asshole’s name.”
“Will do.”
Seth ended the call and lowered the phone, staring out over the alley and rooftops. The town looked peaceful.
It always did.
He turned back toward the door, already making a mental list of the questions he would ask. He glanced at the window and saw Lottie talking to Allison. He’d let them talk for a couple of minutes before going back in. That young woman had run through hell and landed in Hollister. He wasn’t about to let the devil find her. Speaking of which, he walked down the stairs and around the building. Sure enough, there was a divot in the dirt. He stretched under the boardwalk and pulled the clothes she was using as bedding out of the dirt.
CHAPTER 18
The smell of warm bread and cinnamon still clung to the walls upstairs, even though the ovens downstairs had been off for hours. Outside the apartment window, October had turned crisp and cold.
Allison shut the windows that had been open that afternoon and stirred honey into two mugs of chamomile tea. She carried them to the small table tucked beneath the window. Lottie sat there, knees drawn up, staring out over Main Street like she expected something awful to appear around the corner at any second.
“Here,” Allison said gently, setting the mug in front of her. “Drink. You’ve got to be running on empty.”
Lottie took it with both hands, fingers trembling around the ceramic. She didn’t sip, just held the warmth close like it might keep her together.
“I don’t know why I asked for help,” she murmured.
“Because you weren’t going to make it if you didn’t,” Allison said, sitting across from her. “You needed the strength to survive, and you found it.” Allison watched her carefully. “You want to talk about it?”
Another long pause. Then Lottie nodded. Once. Barely.
“It started so small,” she said. “Little things. He didn’t like my friends. Said they were jealous of what we had. Toxic. That’s what he called them. Told me I didn’t need them.” Her eyes didn’t lift from the mug. “Then he didn’t like my job. Said my boss flirted with me. He asked me if I encouraged my boss. I didn’t, I swear.”
The desperation in her voice almost killed her. Allison blinked. “I believe you.”
Lottie drew a shaky breath. “He made me feel disgusting for going to work so my boss could flirt. He made me stop wearing makeup. If I laughed at anyone else’s jokes, he’d say I was into them or wanted them more than I wanted him.”
Allison’s chest tightened. She didn’t interrupt. Just let the girl speak.
“I quit. He said he’d take care of me. That’s what he always said. I’ll take care of you. And I believed him.” Lottie’s lip trembled. “God help me, I believed him.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Allison said softly.
Lottie shook her head, fast and sharp. “No. That’s the thing. I did. Everything was my fault. If he was angry, it was because I made him that way. I didn’t mean to do it, but I always did. If he hit something, it was because I provoked him. He would get mad if I flinched, but I couldn’t stop.” Her voice broke. “He hurt me.”
Allison reached across the table and gently covered Lottie’s knee. The girl didn’t pull away.
“The last time,” Lottie whispered, “he knocked me into the kitchen counter so hard I split my eyebrow open. I remember staring at the blood on the tile, wondering if I’d get to clean it before he made me explain it.”
Allison’s gut twisted. The bastard. “He made you explain why you were bleeding?”
“Yeah. I had to explain how I messed up. What I did to make him so mad.”
Allison sat back. “That’s insane.”
Lottie looked at her. “He said if I ever left him or if I ever embarrassed him in front of anyone, he’d kill me. And I believe him, Allison. I really do. If he finds me, he’ll kill me. He won’t yell. He won’t drag me home. He’ll just end it. He’s told me how. He will choke me. Face-to-face so he can watch me die.”
Allison felt her heart twist. There was no exaggeration in Lottie’s voice. No drama. Just the clear, simple certainty of someone who’d lived in survival mode for too long.
“Well,” she said firmly, “he’s not going to find you. Not here. Not in my town.”
Lottie blinked, surprised by the strength in Allison’s tone.
“Hollister may be small,” Allison went on, “but it’s tight knit. People notice strangers. They care. They ask questions. The folks here? They’d move heaven and earth to protect someone in need. Especially from someone who thinks raising his fists against a woman makes him a man.”
Lottie’s lip quivered. “But I’m not from here.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Allison said. “You’re here now. And no one hurts people in Hollister and walks away without the whole damn town standing in their path.”
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the tick of the wall clock and the faint sounds of the wind in the trees outside.
Lottie finally took a sip of tea, her hands steadying just a little. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For seeing me.”
“You don’t have to thank me, sweetheart.” Allison gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “You’re safe. We’ve got you. No one’s going to let him touch you again.”
The clothes were damp and stiff with cold. Bundled together were crusted fleece and a thrift store windbreaker. They smelled of old wood, earth, and weeks without washing. Seth stood there for a beat, crouched in the shadows beneath the slats, the late afternoon wind dragging dust across gravel behind him.
That’s when he saw it, buried inside a pocket.
A dead Apple Watch.
Black band, cracked face, silent.
He swore under his breath and shoved it in his coat pocket before striding back up the embankment toward the bakery.
He found Lottie sitting on the floor in the living room, legs folded under her, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She looked up when he came in. Her eyes were puffy and red but clear.
“Hey,” she said quietly.
Seth didn’t answer right away. He crossed to the table and set the bundle of clothes down gently. Then he pulled the watch from his pocket and held it up. “This was in your jacket.”
Her brow furrowed, then she smiled faintly. “My watch. I forgot it was even in there.”
“It’s dead,” he said. “But it could have been broadcasting your location when it was charged.”
The words landed like stones.
Lottie stared at the device, her face going pale. “No …”
“He could have followed it. Not directly to here, but close. Close enough to find you if he were looking.”
Her whole body recoiled. The blanket slipped from her shoulders as she stood too fast, stumbling back toward the wall like she’d been struck.
“Oh, God.”
“He’s not here,” Seth said calmly. “But this? I bet my next paycheck that this was his beacon, Lottie. One you didn’t even know you were carrying.”
She looked at the watch, then at Seth, and her voice broke. “I thought I was free.”
“You are,” he said, stepping forward, his voice gentler now. “I’m not plugging it in. No one is. It’s done.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle and sank onto the edge of the couch. “I’m so stupid. How could I not know? I was carrying it the whole time.”
“You weren’t stupid,” Seth said firmly. “You were surviving. And he counted on that. It’s what predators like him do. Bank on you not knowing, not asking. That’s how men like him keep control. But it’s over now.”
She shook her head, tears spilling silently. “He’ll come. If he thinks I’m alive. If he thinks I’m out here … He’ll find me. He said he’d kill me if I ever made him look weak. If I embarrassed him.”
Seth knelt in front of her, resting one steady hand on the couch cushion near hers.
“We’ve already got the sheriff looped in. With your permission, we’ll let the rest of the town know. Quietly. Folks around here don’t take kindly to men who hurt women. They’ll keep their eyes open. He won’t get far.”
Lottie hesitated, her voice barely audible. “What will they think of me?”
“They won’t even wonder. This is Hollister. People watch out for each other. You’re one of us now.”
She nodded slowly, then again, more sure. “Okay. Tell them. Please.”
Seth reached for his phone but paused. “Lottie … I need his name. And a description.”
She swallowed hard. “Eric Danvers. He’s twenty-eight. Six-foot-one. Stocky. Blond buzz cut. Has a scar on his chin and a burn mark on his left hand. He got it when he threw a pan at me, and the grease spilled on his hand.”
Seth didn’t react, but his gut twisted.
“He drives a navy-blue Chevy Silverado. Extended cab. Big dent on the passenger side from when he got drunk and ran into a mailbox. He keeps saying he’ll fix it, but he never does.”
“Plates?”
She shook her head. “I don’t remember. It’s a South Dakota plate, but I only saw it once. He always parked in the garage. I wasn’t allowed in there.”
Seth nodded, already committing every word to memory.
She gripped the edge of the cushion, knuckles white. “Seth … if he comes, don’t try to talk to him. He’ll twist everything I said around. He’ll make you believe him.” Tears brimmed over her bottom lashes.
“I won’t.”
She was shaking, “Promise me.”
“I promise.” His voice was low, hard. “If Eric Danvers sets one foot in Hollister, I’ll make sure he wishes he hadn’t.”
She exhaled shakily, her shoulders trembling, then leaned forward until her forehead pressed against her knees.
Seth stood and stepped into the hallway, and wrapped his arm around Allison, who had tears in her eyes, too. His jaw clenched, phone already dialing.
This was no longer just protection.
It was war.
Ken answered on the first ring.
“You’ve got something?”
Seth stood in the hallway and spoke so both women could hear him.
“I found out how he was tracking her.”
Ken didn’t speak, just waited.
“She had a smart watch in her jacket. It was dead when I found it, but he could've followed her here if he’d been using an app or paired account. It wouldn’t be exact like a military grade GPS, but it would have kept him close, at least. Maybe that’s why he drove past and then circled back.”
“Damn it. That makes sense,” Ken muttered. “She know?”
“Now she does.” Seth’s jaw tightened. “She freaked out when I told her he could’ve been tracking her with the watch. She thought she was being careful.”
“She was,” Ken said flatly. “He was just being a snake.”
“That’s what I told her, too.” There was silence again, both men chewing on what that meant.
“She gave permission for the town to be notified. Quietly. I’ve got a name and a vehicle.”
“Go,” Ken said.
“Eric Danvers. Twenty-eight. From Spearfish. Six-foot-one, stocky, blond buzz cut, scar on his chin, burn scar on his left hand. Drives a navy-blue Chevy Silverado, extended cab. The passenger side’s dented bad from a drunk driving incident she witnessed.”
“Plates?”
“South Dakota. No number. Always parked backed in. Hiding it.”
“Figures. I can find out with this information.”
“I told her we’d protect her,” Seth said, voice low. “And I meant it.”
“So do I,” Ken said. “Listen, I’ll call in my deputy. He can start spreading the word to folks we trust. Old guard, ranch hands, business owners. People who’ll keep their mouths shut and their eyes open.”
“Start with Edna,” Seth said. “She sees everything, and nobody questions her when she talks.”
